US Wind has announced plans for a new 1.2GW offshore wind farm off Maryland and a new steel production plant and port facility to support its construction.
Its CEO Jeff Grybowski – who led development of the US' first offshore wind farm, Block Island, as CEO of Deepwater Wind – said the new wind farm and steel works would help Maryland “become the epicentre of offshore wind manufacturing”. US Wind is headquartered in Baltimore, the most populous city in Maryland.
The developer plans to build the {{Momentum Wind-3857d988-d40d-df31-fa9e-9a081c21861a}} project off the coast of Maryland, with a first unspecified phase due online by 2026 and a second phase online by 2028.
Momentum would feature up to 82 turbines – indicating an average turbine power rating of up to 14.6MW.
Its construction would create approximately 3,500 direct construction jobs and approximately 100 direct operations jobs, US Wind stated.
The developer plans to build the project in the 323km2 lease area off Maryland it acquired for $8.7 million in 2014, where it is also developing its 300MW MarWin project.
Port and steel plant plans
US Wind has also signed labour agreements to support its 22-turbine MarWin wind farm and announced plans for a new port facility and steel production facility.
It will invest an initial $77 million and then a further $150 million in a new port facility that would be used for staging and delivering wind turbine nacelles, towers, blades and foundations. US Wind will develop the Sparrows Point site – a former steelworks – with its owner Tradepoint Atlantic.
US Wind also plans to produce monopiles for the MarWind project and subsequent offshore wind farms at a new steel fabrication facility there.
It has signed an agreement with the United Steelworkers union to support production operations, creating more than 500 local, permanent jobs.
Maryland has already awarded financial support to an offshore wind pipeline of 390MW. It aims to have at least 1.2GW of additional offshore wind power capacity online by 2030.
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